At present forks are extended from an aisle to a side to go under pallets to lift them and back out. My improvement eliminates this and reduces aisle width to the width of the container plus clearance by eliminating the need to turn a stacker in the aisle even while serving both sides of the aisle.
While lift trucks are available with forks that can be turned 90° to a side and that move out to that side and back to eliminate turning of the stacker to serve only one side of an aisle, that type is considered complex and requires stopping in alignment for operation of the fork. It is an object to eliminate that mechanism and simplify for similar applications and further to be able to transfer to either side of an aisle without turning around.
The motion of my lift truck for transfer is straight along the aisle past a storage rack where a container is thereby transferred in or out according to the direction of travel.